Uplift Magazine

Anti Sex-Slavery campaigner Anuradha Koirala (pictured above) was yesterday named as CNN’s ‘Hero of the Year’. Koirala – who, with her organisation Maiti Nepal, has helped rescue more than 12,000 women and girls from sex-slavery – was presented with the title (and the grand total of $125,000 to further her work) at a star-studded, filmed event.

Selecting from 10 finalists, the US public were asked to vote for the hero who most inspired them on the CNN website. The voter’s hearts were won over by the work of Koirala and Maiti Nepal – work which includes patrolling the India-Nepal border, raiding brothels and rescuing girls from being sold into the sex trade. Those girls and young women, who would have otherwise been enslaved by the trade and forced to endure rape and torture, are instead provided shelter and offered education.

Speaking out against sex-trafficking, Koirala said; ‘We have to end this heinous crime, please join hands with me to end this crime.’

Huge congratulations to the much deserving Koirala… and long may her work continue!

Learn more about Maiti Nepal’s vital work here, and watch the inspirational Anuradha Koirala accepting her award here.

I’m all for incorporating a good cause into my beauty routine, which I was able to do this week with The Body Shop’s new campaign to stop the sex trafficking of children and young people. The campaign web page feature some shocking trafficking statistics, as are detailed on the above advertisement. There are more slaves today than ever before in human history, and tragically, the majority of human trafficking is for sexual purposes.

1.8 million children embroiled in this inhumane industry are too many to be ignored. And so, a long standing pioneer in the fight against many social injustices, The Body Shop have launched their new campaign (in collaboration with ECPAT UK) in order to bring government attention to the need for a guardianship system for trafficking victims. As is detailed on their website, this would mean that all child victims of trafficking would:

- have someone with parental responsibility to care for and support them

- be prevented from facing further exploitation and harm from their traffickers

- receive the educational, medical, practical and legal support they need to help rebuild their lives

By signing The Body Shop petition, you can help make a difference. This can be done online or in-store, as can treating yourself to the fabulous new ‘Soft Hands, Kind Heart’ hand cream for just £3.50, £2.06 of which goes straight to ECPAT UK. Other ways you can help include cross-posting this article (or the Body Shop link), tweeting for the cause, or linking on Facebook, all of which can be done via the What can I do? link on The Body Shop website. You can also write to your MP calling on them to sign EDM 513, a proposal asking the government to introduce a system of guardianship for child victims of trafficking, here. At the time of my writing this article, the petition has 237, 591 signatures, please add yours today.

For more information on the Trafficking Industry, please refer to the following charity links.